57 Billion Dollars in 5 Days: The Frenzy of July

Over the past five days, the Massachusetts legislature has made significant progress on two major expenditure bills, the FY23 budget and economic growth and relief bill. This legislation, if enacted, will provide over 57 billion dollars of critical support to the Commonwealth over the next fiscal year. With the legislature preparing to take vacation at the end of the month, this has only increased the sense of urgency to get these bills passed. This week, the final version of the 2023 budget, HB5050, was laid before the Governor, and later today, the Senate will take up the economic growth and relief bill, SB3018. While the total allotment of funding may end up changing in the coming weeks, this hurried attempt to rush the legislative process has left many struggling to keep track of everything. For those who may be in this position, we conducted a brief analysis of these bills and their movement thus far.

HB5050:

The fiscal year 2023 budget was first filed by the Governor nearly 6 months ago, at the end of January. It took until mid-April to reach the House floor, and was sent to the Senate in the beginning of May. Following its passage in this chamber, the appointed House and Senate conference committees deliberated until finally releasing the budget late this past Sunday night. Their version, HB5050, allocated over $52.7B for the Commonwealth's state agencies and municipalities. This increase in expenditure correlated with an overall rise in revenue from FY22, and as a result was unanimously adopted by both houses.

While there were a number of reasons for why increased expenditure was needed, there were particular aspects of this budget that saw increases in funding. Public health was certainly a key investment, as HB5050 allocates more support for MassHealth safety net hospitals as well as HIV and stroke prevention services. In regard to the latter allotment, $15M is being proposed for the HIV Drug Assistance Program, and over a million dollars for the stroke advisory task force, STOP Stroke and F.A.S.T. Stroke awareness programs. Additionally, persons with disabilities were a focus in the budget, as nearly $2.5M was allocated for employment assistance services and vocational programs for severely disabled adults. This, coupled with the $72.80 monthly personal allowance for disabled residents of nursing homes, aims to better ensure disabled residents of all ages are economically supported in the Commonwealth. 

Two of the most important changes in this year’s budget though are not pertaining to expenditure, but rather amending Massachusetts’ general laws. The first proposed change is to ban all marriages in Massachusetts in which a party of the marriage is under 18. This attempt to ban child marriage will likely be supported by the Governor, and if so, will severely limit parental/guardian arranged marriages for kids. Secondly, following in the footsteps of neighboring Connecticut, the legislature adopted that all phone calls for inmates in the Department of Corrections will now be free. This change is one that is quickly garnering support across the country as the impact of the costs of these calls has become more apparent, yet it remains unknown if the Baker administration will support this effort. Within the next five days, the final appropriation and changes for FY23 budget will likely be laid out.

HB5034:

The current version of the economic growth and relief bill provides over $4.3B of fiscal aid for various areas of economic development in the Commonwealth. However, the original version of the bill appropriated almost a billion dollars less when first filed in April of this year. After being first reported by the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, in June and July the bill made its way through the House Bonding and Ways & Means committees, producing HB5007 on July 11th. Representatives then collectively filed 875 amendments, of which over 500 were adopted in five massive consolidated amendments last Thursday. 

While the average number of amendments adopted per legislator in HB5034 was only three, those representatives on top of the leaderboard above far exceed that. This is potentially for a couple of reasons, one of which being that these representatives filed a significant amount of general law-related amendments as opposed to just fiscal earmarks. However, it is also telling that as many of them hail from the Suffolk district, the House hopes to keep a pattern of investing many of its dollars into the economic development of its largest hub, the Metro-Boston area. As the Senate takes up their version of the bill today, this trend is likely to continue.

SB3018:

Following the House debate of last Thursday, July 15th, the printed-as-amended version of the economic growth and relief bill, HB5034, arrived in the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. The new Senate version of the bill, SB3018, was filed this past Monday, and while many components of the House version were included, there were also a fair amount of changes. As a result, like with the House version, a large number of amendments have been filed - a total of 631. 

Although it remains to be seen if the Senate will incorporate nearly as many amendments into their version as the House did, those senators that filed more amendments may have a better chance. The average number of amendments filed per senator for SB3018 was approximately 16, meaning that only 17 of 40 senators filed greater than the average amount. While quantity does not necessarily equal quality, the four senators shown in the graphic above will likely be a part of many discussions today, especially if the Senate ends up following suit and producing five total consolidated amendments, like the House.

In a mere five days, the legislature will have allocated over $57B for 2023 and beyond. Our brief analysis is simply the tip of the iceberg when it comes to where all this money is going. But rather than having to scour through hundreds of pages of line items to understand all proposed appropriations, InstaTrac is here to make it easy! Our service provides information on each amendment for every fiscal bill, section-by-section summaries on all legal changes, comparisons of House and Senate versions of bills, and so much more! For more information or to see a demo of our services, please reach out to info@instatrac.com.

Never miss a blog post - and stay on top of what’s happening on Beacon Hill! Follow us on Twitter, Linkedin, or Instagram.